WWUTT 742 Being Mature Men of God?

Titus 2:2 and the Call for Mature Men of God

If you're a guy, write this verse down and memorize it. Titus 2 .2, older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's word that we may be filled with the knowledge of his will. For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky, and a delight to be with you once again as we open up the word of God and study from Titus 2. Today, I'm gonna begin by reading verses one through six.

The apostle Paul wrote to Titus, but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands that the word of God may not be reviled.

Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. So Paul tells Titus to teach what accords with sound doctrine. Teach that which flows from the true words of our Lord Jesus Christ, in keeping with the gospel and in obedience to the gospel.

And if you have a church congregation that is sitting under this kind of gospel-focused teaching, what will their lives look like? And that's what we have here in verses two through six. That which accords with godliness, that which produces godliness in the lives of believers, we'll see older men, younger men, older women, younger women looking like this picture that we have here in verses two through six.

And Paul even makes a mention of this as he's talking about the younger women. He says, teach them to be submissive to their own husbands that the word of God may not be reviled. If somebody, if a woman is not being submissive to her husband and talking specifically about married women, but if she's not submitting to her husband, which is supposed to be a picture of the way that the church submits to Christ, then it will bring a reproach upon the word of God.

If wives within a church congregation are not being submissive to their husbands. And likewise, a husband needs to be a model of Christ likeness in the sense that he lays down his life for his wife, just as Christ did for the church.

And this is the analogy that Paul paints in Ephesians chapter five. The husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. So there is no one in the church that is gonna be more influential on the conduct, the character, the maturity of that body than the older men.

How do I know that? Well, because that's the structure that God created for the home, that the father, the husband is the head of his household. So he is the most influential figure in the home, in the lives of his wife and his children.

So that's also gonna translate to the church. The family unit is the most basic unit of community. You do not have a thriving community if you do not have families. And I specifically say thriving because though you may have a community full of individual single people, if they are not married and families and producing offspring that community will eventually languish and die.

So a community that's all men would be an incomplete community. They cannot flourish. They cannot produce offspring. Same way as if you had all women. So for the community, the most basic building block of the community is the family.

When God created the first man and woman, he created them to be a family, not to be individual people living on their own. Adam wasn't off doing his thing. Eve wasn't off doing her thing because had they not been the family that God had created them to be, the human race would have ended right there.

So specifically for a community to thrive and to flourish, it must be made up of families. And in this basic building block of community, you have the husband who has been designated by God to be the head of his household, to be the provider for his wife and his children, not just materially, but also spiritually and especially spiritually.

So because the husband is the most influential person in the family, the older, more mature men are gonna be the most influential persons in a body of believers, in the family of God, in the ecclesia or the called out assembly that we refer to as the church.

Now that man may be married or he may be single, regardless, it is the mature man in a congregation who is gonna be the spiritual, the most influential spiritual role model for the body. So here, Paul is talking about what mature men, the older men of the church are going to look like in Christian conduct and character.

And this is the way that Titus needs to encourage these men to mature. So the first thing that Titus is setting up in this church is a mature elder or pastor who is gonna lead this flock according to the word of God.

But then the next most influential person is gonna be the other older men. Now that man who is the pastor, he's likewise gonna be an older man. He's among these older men, but he has a specific designation that's different since he is gonna be the one who is overseeing the spiritual care of the flock, more so than any of the older lay persons will.

But this conduct in this older man is going to be an influence on even the women in the church as well as it would be in the younger men. So here is what we have in the character of a mature believer of God, these older men in the congregation.

Sober-Minded, Dignified, and Self-Controlled

Verse two, older men are to be sober minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love and instead fastness. There you have it, Titus 2 .2. Hey, men of God, I don't care if you're an older man or a younger man, take that verse, write it down, stick it on something so that you can see it regularly.

If you are committed to sound doctrinal teaching and that which flows from the gospel of Jesus Christ, what sort of man of God should you be? Here it is right here, Titus 2 .2. You're to be sober minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love and instead fastness.

Memorize it, aspire to be that. Let's talk about what these terms mean. So first of all, the more mature man, this mature man in the faith is to be sober minded. Now I've talked on this broadcast about this character quality before.

Sober minded is translated from the Greek word nephelios and it appears only three times in the New Testament. 1 Timothy 3 .2, talking about the qualifications for a pastor, 1 Timothy 3 .11, talking about the qualifications for a deacon and Titus 2 .2, talking about the character qualities that a mature man of God is supposed to have.

So remember, as I've talked with you about the qualifications for a pastor, this is not just something that pertains to a pastor, but these are certainly qualities that any Christian should aspire to have.

Any mature believer should be able to say that they are someone who is above reproach. Someone who is not arrogant or quick tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain. Someone who is hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined and holding firm to the trustworthy word as taught.

Those were the qualifications we saw for a pastor. That were given to Titus in Titus chapter one. Those are character qualities that any mature believer should desire to have. And so as that is a character quality that is listed for pastors and for deacons, so here we also see it apply to older lay persons, laymen in the church.

Older men are to be sober minded. Now, what does it mean to be sober minded? Well, another way that this word is translated, if you have the NASB, it might even be translated that way in the new American standard, it's temperance.

And to be temperant in mind means that you're not somebody who is given over to a lot of wild and fanciful ideas or speculations and myths, the way that Paul put it with Timothy in first Timothy chapter one.

So we are to not be devoted to myths and speculations, but rather we're supposed to be devoted to sound doctrine, the sound teaching of the word of Christ. Even the mature men in the church, it's not just something that applies to pastors, although they certainly have a responsibility to be devoted to sound teaching, but even these older men are supposed to have a sound understanding of the faith, that they have been so applied, they have been so committed to and steadfast in for years that they are skilled and experienced in running the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

I'm drawing that, of course, from Hebrews chapter 12. So these older men are sober-minded, not given over to crazy ideas, they themselves are even devoted to the sound teaching of the faith. Just a couple of days ago, I listened to a sermon from a pastor.

The point of the sermon was that we need to learn the art of trapeze, like a flying trapeze, and trust God like a trapeze artist trusts the person who catches him. He said that this word trapeze is a biblical word, and in the Greek, it appears only one time in the scriptures and that's in the book of Luke, when Jesus tabled with his disciples at the last supper.

The Greek word is that he trapezes with them. This idea is so profound, the pastor said, that many theologians have written on the subject. Truth be told, it's the first time I'd ever heard of it. I've never heard of this delineation between a trapeze table and a flying trapeze.

But the pastor went on to tell a story about a theologian, Henry Nguyen, and that may be a familiar name to some of you, who took a sabbatical from studying and teaching God's word and went to study being a trapeze artist to better understand how to give up control to God the Father.

Here's a couple of responses to this. First of all, trapezes is a Greek word, yes, but it has nothing to do with the flying trapeze that you see in a circus. It also appears more than a half dozen times in the Bible, not just once.

The word simply means a little rectangular table. That's all it means. But the pastor saw a similarity between the Greek word trapezes and a flying trapeze and decided to make a nonsense correlation to our relationship with God the Father.

And his sermon contained very little Bible. I think he quoted like two verses in the whole thing. And of course, that passage in Luke was one of them. Here's the second problem with this sermon is that he appealed to the experience of Henry Nguyen, who was a homosexual Catholic priest.

He's got nothing to teach us about a relationship with God. And this theologian quit his job studying God's word and teaching theology to instead study trapeze artistry in order to get closer with God.

He literally left the word of God and joined a circus thinking that that would help him understand how to have a relationship with God. Folks, our relationship with God is here in the scriptures. We hear God speak to us every time we open up the word of God, and then we speak to God through prayer.

You do not find out how to have a relationship with God by studying to be a trapeze artist. This is exactly the kind of thing that Paul says, a sound man of God will not devote himself to. Not these speculations and myths from people puffed up without understanding, desiring to be teachers of the law, but not understanding what it is they teach or make their confident assertions.

It's not just for a pastor to be devoted to sound doctrine, but even the older men in a congregation must be sober minded. They must be temperate. They must be devoted to the sound teaching of the faith.

Furthermore, they must be dignified. Now, as I look up this particular word for dignified, in short, he must be honorable. He must be a person who is worthy of imitating in his conduct. That's what it means to be dignified.

I also found this definition and I love this. It's having gravitas or gravity. This person is weighty. They are deeply respected because they are viewed as being someone who is worthy of honor. So you see this person in their conduct and you hear their words and the way that they behave.

And this is a person who just, they have a weight to them and people are attracted to them because they are dignified. This is the way older men in a congregation are to be. They are supposed to be self-controlled and we've talked about this one at length and we're gonna talk about it some more as well.

To be self-controlled doesn't merely mean that you abstain from doing bad things. It also means that you aspire to do good things because remember that verse that we have at the end of this chapter, where it says that Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession.

That's his church who are zealous for good works. We have a passion for doing the work of God. We want to do what pleases God and we want and desire to show love and affection and compassion and fellowship for our brothers and sisters in the faith.

This is something that we must aspire to do. We must actually labor to do it and work for it. We're not just abstaining from bad things. Once again, we are aspiring to do those things which pleases God and benefits his church.

Finally, the older men are to be sound in faith, in love and in steadfastness. To be sound means that you are in good health, you are reasonable, you are pure and uncorrupted. They have an uncorrupted faith.

They have an uncorrupted love and affection for the people of God and they are steadfast. This person has such a reputation in the faith. You know that they are unshakable. They are not gonna leave the faith.

They display they have been sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. This maturity is going to be evident as a person has been devoted for so many years to this faith that they have. And it is a character that all of the older men in the church should aspire to if they desire that which accords with sound doctrine.

To further this point, here is Dr. Votie Bauckham.

Sound in faith, sound in faith. One of the marks of a man who's been walking with God over time is that he ought to be sound in faith. If there is anything that burdens me, it is this idea. In our culture, in the modern American Christianity, we will not tolerate biblical, theological and spiritual maturity in men.

Let me say that again. In modern American Christianity, we will not tolerate biblical, spiritual, theological maturity in men. You just can't have it. Nothing above mediocrity. Oh, what do you mean? I mean, we're at this conference and we, I mean, of course we're all about this.

We want men to be mature. We want men to grow up. Listen, I can prove it to you. In most of our churches, if you have a young man who's 16, 17, 18 years old, and this young man is reading church history and he's reading theology, he knows his Bible.

He's studying his Bible. He has a passion for the word of God, has a passion for the things of God and a passion for the people of God. You know what happens in the average American church? They look at that 16, 17, 18 year old young man and they say, God must be calling you to preach.

Really, why? Because you love the Bible, you love theology, you love church history, you're passionate about the things of God. Now, what we ought to say is, well, that just means you're a Christian, right?

No, not in the modern American church. And you know this is true. In the modern American church, if a young man gets that serious about the things of God, immediately the mediocrity of manhood in the modern American church says, you need to get away from the rest of us because we will not tolerate your passion.

You've got to go get a seminary degree, you've got to go become a pastor, you've got to put Reverend in front of your name so that I no longer feel guilty about my own mediocre pursuits. And because of that, modern American Christianity is the only place in our culture where we will tolerate this cognitive dissonance between a man who will say, I've been walking with God 30, 40, 50 years and I know nothing.

Because anywhere else, I don't care what, you name the field, name the field where in our culture, and I'm talking about just anybody, just lost pagans, name the field. I don't care if it's brick laying, I don't care if it's truck driving, whatever it is.

If there's a man on the job who says, I've been doing this for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, and another young man comes to the job and says, hey, I've heard you've been doing this 30 years, 40 years.

I know if there's anybody who can show me the ropes, you can show me the ropes. And we'd all say, yeah, of course, if he's been doing it that long, you ought to be able to come to him and he ought to be able to show you the ropes.

But what if the young man comes to the older man who's been doing this for 30, 40, 50 years and says, brother, you've been laying bricks for 40 years and I've just started. Can I just come alongside you and watch you so that I can learn how to be a bricklayer because I'm sure you're a master at it now.

Oh, I ain't no master bricklayer. I don't know nothing about no bricks. I see we laugh, but how about this? You've been walking with God 20, 30, 40 years. Sir, can I come alongside you as a younger man and you mentor me in doctrine, theology, Bible, and church history?

What's the response? I ain't no preacher. It's the only place in America where we accept something so ludicrous. Where a man can say I've been walking with God 30, 40 years and I proudly declare I know nothing.

I'm ignorant. I'm a babe in Christ. A 40-year-old baby and I'm not ashamed of it. Nowhere else is that acceptable. Only in the church. Only in the church. But the text says one of the evidences of a man that belongs to God, who has been walking with God over time is that he is sound in faith.

He's sound. We're called to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all handed down to the saints. And yet we proudly proclaim that because we don't have ordination papers, we're unwilling and unable to do it.

If nothing else, just having read through the Bible for 40 years ought to make you somewhat of an expert. Amen?

Are you good and convicted now? Hey, if you're somebody that after listening to that and reading here in Titus 2 too, you realize I've wasted so much of my life and how mature a believer can I say that I am as opposed to who I was 10, 20 plus years ago, if that's you and you've been convicted over this, ask for God's forgiveness and ask that he would make you into the man of God that you should be for the church, for their benefit.

You understand that if you are immature in the faith, that just means that your church is that much less mature. Our maturity actually benefits the whole church. And then as Paul instructs in Romans 15, we who are strong have an obligation to help those who are less mature so that we can build them up and we all attain to maturity in the faith as he outlines in Ephesians 4.

This is the way that a church is supposed to consider one another in our progression, in sanctification. And we're gonna talk about this more tomorrow. Older women, you're up next. Let's pray. Our great God, we thank you for the blessings that you have poured out upon us as your church, a called out assembly.

You have called us out from the world to be holy and blameless before you with a righteousness that is not our own but has been given to us by Jesus Christ. And I pray that as we grow in the righteousness of Christ, that we would be doing this for one another's benefit.

We mature in the faith that we would be a benefit to our brothers and sisters in the Lord, all attaining to unity that we have in Jesus Christ who is the head over the church, to whom all of us as the church submit and help us to also submit to one another out of reverence for Christ as said in Ephesians 5, verse 22, that we may be a benefit to one another as we encourage one another in the faith.

If there is any way that we know after listening to today and reading the scriptures, if we have been so convicted to realize we've wasted so many years instead of growing in the faith that we would be a benefit to one another, may we repent as we should, convict our hearts, may we repent from this and be fully proactive in the pursuit of Christ and his holiness.

And we pray this in his name, amen.

For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .utt .com.